George's observations on social injustice, bigotry, and other tyrannies of the majority.

Monday, August 3, 2009

Aaarg! My Twitter Account was Hijacked!!

OOOOhhhhh! I feel so ashamed!! I can't believe my Twitter account got hijacked!! Some unknown bot or application was posting data to Twitter under my user Id. It was sending links to my friends telling them that I'd made several hundred dollars by going to this website.

I caught it right away, but unfortunately, the application kept posting to my account. I thought there was malware on my PC, but scans and my IT department have not been able to find anything (which at least makes me feel better). I suspect that "Yonoo", which is a browser Add-On program that displays Facebook and Twitter content and allows you to post from within any browser window may be how my account was hijacked.

Yonoo is a great way to stay connected to those services while going about one's workday, but not if it's going to expose my accounts to exploitation. I have disabled some features, and am waiting for Twitter to re-enable my account (it has been suspended due to suspicious activity). I may toss Yonoo in favor of Seesmic, if I switch I'll write about it here.

Needless to say, my security "Street Cred" has been harmed! I will take this as a lesson though, and pass it on to all my "tweeps" if I ever get my Twitter account back.